Competitive Battling Chat

[Daniel Evans]

Hey there guys. Just got into battling on the Pokemon Online Server, so I'm a newbie at this whole Competitive Battling stuff.
A community-oriented way? That's sounds fun. Will it be like a Mentor program or somethin'?

[Pokedra]

Ah I see, my mistake. That could definitely work, granted it'd have to be on a regular basis to keep interest up imo. Perhaps start a thread to get more people in on the idea?

[Forever]

Well I blogged linking people to here and idk I'd rather see like that there is support here without trying to get into a thread and in case Wolf is like "NOPE NEVER". XD;

I mean if there is lots of support sure but there's only like 5/6 rn and idk we should see what others think first imo.

[dragonomega]

I agree with Nica's idea. She told me to post here saying I do, sooo ;__; here i am

[krazzikk]

Originally Posted by Daniel Evans

Will it be like a Mentor program or somethin'?

Yeah, I think it will be something like that, but not as focused on one person but focused on the whole community of new users

[Pokedra]

I'll be willing to help anyone interested in seriously getting into UU or want the basics in OU or NU.

[Wolflare]

Well, I'm back! I apologize for taking an absence that lasted around a month. I'm still very busy, and I'll probably remain like that for a while. I think I'll have enough time to be active on here, but I won't make any promises. With that said, I'm going to initiate my CBC revamp (this for those who don't know/remember). In short, it's just a reorganization of CBC to make it more accessible and just a better forum overall (this also includes revamping the server, the rules for it, etc.). The new sub-forum has already been made so the rest should only take a few days to complete. Once I'm done with that, I'll be willing to start improving CBC's activity.

Originally Posted by Pokedra

One thing I would like to try for some activity is a league thing kinda like what Smogon are doing with their UU Mafia here.

http://www.smogon.com/forums/showthread.php?t=3470139

<snip>

Sure, I was thinking about doing it as well when the NUgget bridge thread (NU version of it afaik) on Smogon started. Still, this is basically the same thing I wanted to do with our league, but we never got around to starting one. I was inspired by Luke's old league that included two divisions of 5 people and challengers could fight either group (I can't link because Battle Stadium is either set to higher staff only or deleted). Just having one group of 5 people would be better of course. If you'd like, you can go ahead and make this.

Originally Posted by Requility

Anyway ONTO INCREASING USERBASE! Well, at least I kinda wanted to do this unofficially but we could all do it officially sinceeee why not? Firstly, don't kill me for suggesting this, secondly, there are a lot of people around here lately with an interest in battling, but they don't know much and there's not many willing to teach them so they don't really bother. I'm saying this because like, 5 or so people within the last week were interested but didn't have the opportunity to learn. I remember when I was just a stalker back in June last year, when y'all had the PO group convo thing which was basically teaching everyone competitive or at least the basics - but all at once, which was... a part of the tutoring corner? However, while there's only a few of us left who do kinda wanna get new people here, maybe we should take advantage of that and do something similar - but more of an integration into CBC type thing - and for it not to be on-going but rather a one time thing, and for it to happen every six months or something. In fact, you could do it at B2W2's launch because there's a lot guaranteed to join PC and potentially be interested in battling. Actually, per day, when checking NU/W, there's about 2 per day who are interested in battling but don't stick around because well, there's nothing to stick around here for. Soooo if that did happen, then perhaps the userbase could increase. It'd be less like the past but more like a get to know the community type thing. Not really like comm night but with an exact... intention, to get more people here, lol, whereas comm night is obv just for those who are already here.

I still think a guide would be better, but I really have no time to write it up. It's also a pretty daunting task making a guide that explains near everything about battling. Don't forget that I'm making a new resource sticky that will likely help new users a lot more than the current one, but we'll see. I think integrating the tutoring into the Community Night (like a separate channel or something) could be interesting. However, I'm really against organizing a massive schedule that teaches everything about battling. I know this from experience it's a headache to organize. I do think a simple add-on to CN where we have a tournament for new users or something similar and we'll help improve their battling skills (either after the match or during) and team building (but we have the forum for that...or will). They could probably ask questions too. Keep in mind I'll be making a BW OU discussion thread soon, and they'll most likely be able to ask for help regarding standard play. I'd have to think about it more though.

Also, another reason why the Tutoring Corner was pointless is the fact that the forum and CN accomplishes the same thing (especially after the revamp). The forum is here to help new users and should be used as such, while the CN helps bring the community together. Other events help new users practice. Speaking of practice, that's generally the best advice I have for anyone. Most of us are self-taught afaik, and we've gotten better by simply battling a lot. One thing that's intimidating about battling is the lack of knowledge of the tier before playing it (for me anyway). I find it difficult to create a team for a tier I don't know anything about. That brings us back to metagame discussions...

Another idea, we could hold the tutoring class during the next CN, and we can determine what new users need help with the most. Then, we can change the forum accordingly with threads or whatever to help them with that. After all, we really need to use the forum more.

[Pokedra]

I'll do it but when you get some time could you possibly ask a higher-up to put a notice up for it or maybe just an announcement for it? If this is going to work we need to generate some interest for it. For prizes I'm thinking participant emblem (certain amount of matches need to be played), winner emblem and perhaps like I mentioned the ability to choose the member's of the league's usertitles and signatures (within a certain limit of course).

I'm thinking a group of four to start with, UU, NU, two OU and the champion. Defeat all four members to verse then champion and take his spot if you beat him. Whoever holds the title of champion longest wins at the end of say 2-3 months. Of course this is assuming it stays alive.

[dragonomega]

Is PC's server going to move to Pokèmon Showdown anytime soon? That's of course if it's possible. Because PO is slowly dying and like everyone has left. :( (Talking about other servers; not members of PC). And PS seems less buggy and more stable than PO.

Also the PO server is down, again. :(

[Saturated Hue]

Everyone left PO in favor of PO2 most likely. PO2's servers (especially Beta) seem populated enough:

Spoiler:

[dragonomega]

Wait, what?

PO2? omg what

[Saturated Hue]

Um yeah xD The PO website actually says that they no longer officially support PO1 so everyone packed their stuff and moved to PO2 probably!

[dragonomega]

So PO2 is kinda nice. I'll have to get use to the new teambuilder, it's a little different to the old one. :x

Now, as we all know CBC is having an activity crisis and we've tried all methods (have we actually?) to get people to come and battle.

Now what I was thinking is that we could do a Pokemon Online tour. I don't think anyone was here except for myself and maybe Nica idr when .Aero made this; http://www.pokecommunity.com/showthread.php?t=256117

That was a really fun event to do. n___n I'm sure that if we put a lot of effort into advertising it we could attract a lot of battlers, old and new alike. I'm not saying that you should all instantly agree and start work on it immediately, I'm saying that hopefully you can all think about it. There's no big event coming up so it will just be for fun, but maybe, maybe I can get out the ol' Ds and Black version and RNG us up some cute prizes. n__n We could also have a fixed tier. Maybe NU? So more people would also start playing NU or UU? just not ou pls

ALSO DID I MENTION THAT THIS WAS REALLY FUN OMG THO WE SHOULD TOTALLY DO IT. ;___;

[Pokedra]

I would second that. NU, UU and RU are all reasonably good at the moment. Still I'd say RU or UU are easier to pick then NU as there's not as much of a "power" gap between them and OU. What I'm saying is I feel these two are easier to adjust to from people coming from OU.

Keeping it alive on the other hand is another matter...

[Forever]

One issue with PO tour: the recent PokeCommunity Tour @ T&E. About 10 signed up, only four really participated.

CBC's current amount of regulars? Even lower than that. I think what's more important is working on getting more people to come here, rather than promote a tour that may end up dying like everything else PO-based seems to have done in T&E. Because while you can advertise a lot, nothing will really happen if the userbase isn't really larger than it is now and creating an environment to keep them here would be kind of a better thing for now. I just think any events posted now just will probably end up dying due to lack of users, and rather would be better when the userbase is larger.

Buuut if we are, then I vote NU because idk any UU or RU Pokemon. n_n

[dragonomega]

PC needs to move to PO2. :( People like myself and Saturated Hue who have downloaded PO2 cannot go on the PC server. ;; Plus new members who will most likely download PO2 won't be able to either, so.... :(

I know it's possible to have both but tbh it's a lot easier if we move to PO2.

[Pokedra]

PO2 is still quite buggy which is why people were hesitant to change iirc

Besides Showdown is out anyways.

[krazzikk]

Well it seems it would defiantly be a good idea to move to PO2 sometime in the future for a variety of reasons that dragonmega already stated sometime in the future.

I don't know how good Showdown is in comparison to PO but it seems lots of people are going there too, so that's something to consider also.

Unfortunately it seems CBC is set to be completely dead if we don't do something soon </3

[Wolflare]

Originally Posted by Wolflare

Sorry about my sudden absence, my internet conveniently went down shortly after returning from my hiatus. My internet provider (Verizon) was apparently updating some cables in my area, and took them around five days to finish.

This is like two days old, but I thought I'd let you guys know why the revamp hasn't been done yet.

Anyway, the new sub-forum will be made public soon. I already have majority of the main forum stickies done along with the new sub-forum's, and I'm going to make T&E's and ITH's which I should be finished with soon after this post is made. So yeah, expect the revamp to be done in a day or so.

replies:

Spoiler:

Originally Posted by Pokedra

I'll do it but when you get some time could you possibly ask a higher-up to put a notice up for it or maybe just an announcement for it? If this is going to work we need to generate some interest for it. For prizes I'm thinking participant emblem (certain amount of matches need to be played), winner emblem and perhaps like I mentioned the ability to choose the member's of the league's usertitles and signatures (within a certain limit of course).

I'm thinking a group of four to start with, UU, NU, two OU and the champion. Defeat all four members to verse then champion and take his spot if you beat him. Whoever holds the title of champion longest wins at the end of say 2-3 months. Of course this is assuming it stays alive.

The notice and emblems should be easy enough; I can whip up some emblems if you'd like me to. Still, I don't think a notice would be really necessary or helpful, especially considering this isn't a huge event that requires many people. I'll be sure to spam announcements in CBC though. And sorry, what about the usertitles and signatures?

That sounds good. Could try to find someone to play RU as well, for the sake of supporting all tiers.

Originally Posted by dragonomega

Is PC's server going to move to Pokèmon Showdown anytime soon? That's of course if it's possible. Because PO is slowly dying and like everyone has left. :( (Talking about other servers; not members of PC). And PS seems less buggy and more stable than PO.

Also the PO server is down, again. :(

I'm revamping the forum first, then I'll move onto fixing the server. I'm planning to convert the server to PS, make a sticky thread for the server, redo the rules to fix the past issues we had with poor attitude and the like. I heard PO2 was too buggy, so I decided to stick with the current version. Since PS seems like the arguably better simulator at the moment, PC will likely be supporting it from now on. Oh, and PS is much more accessible than PO because it's used via web browser. Therefore, people who have issues downloading PO don't have an excuse now!

Originally Posted by dragonomega

Now what I was thinking is that we could do a Pokemon Online tour. I don't think anyone was here except for myself and maybe Nica idr when .Aero made this; http://www.pokecommunity.com/showthread.php?t=256117

That was a really fun event to do. n___n I'm sure that if we put a lot of effort into advertising it we could attract a lot of battlers, old and new alike. I'm not saying that you should all instantly agree and start work on it immediately, I'm saying that hopefully you can all think about it. There's no big event coming up so it will just be for fun, but maybe, maybe I can get out the ol' Ds and Black version and RNG us up some cute prizes. n__n We could also have a fixed tier. Maybe NU? So more people would also start playing NU or UU? just not ou pls

ALSO DID I MENTION THAT THIS WAS REALLY FUN OMG THO WE SHOULD TOTALLY DO IT. ;___;

Well, Aero's tournament was pretty much a replica of the tours I host during PC's Get-Together (see: this, this, this, this, and a couple of other non-GT tours). I haven't stopped making those tours, but apparently we won't be having a summer Get-Together this year (?). I haven't heard anything about GT yet, and planning usually starts at around June/July I believe. Like Nica said, I revived the tour concept again by making the PC Tour which wasn't very successful. I mean, the server was decently active when I made the tour, but no one was willing to participate (kind of sad really). So, making another probably won't garner any better results. (But I'll still be continuing the PC Tour once I'm done with some other stuff.) I'd rather stick with events that are successful without requiring many members like Community Night and the one Pokie is making.

[Forever]

You guys should go be active in the new thread in CBC tbh, or make your own (like UU!) n_n

[Pokedra]

See you peeps

If the old DPPt gang ever gets back together I may consider returning. Until then best of luck reviving this old bean.

[Forever]

Ugh not more leaving here. :(

Hopefully the following actually makes sense. And if you left, and you were a regular and you're reading this? Then really, you should reply. Don't just sit there and watch from afar otherwise then it just proves me right. Tiny part is aimed at the post before mine but the rest was sparked by everyone else "leaving".

The amount of people left just keeps on dropping, all of you didn't have to leave, you know. It's kind of like, one leaves and it leads to everyone else leaving? Like of the recent "leaving", either Anti or DA was first, then Karp, Syn, Vrai, now you, like... even you enjoyed battling didn't you? (lmao I'm talking like you'll actually come back and read this post, but whatever, it's aimed at everyone), or at least you enjoyed the community, or something? Just seems kind of like it's some craze to just leave because everyone else is and just sticking around and having fun. It's only one extra click at the end of the day, for something that once gave you joy and excitement. Not everyone hates every form of battling, there's one thing all of you at least liked, even up til I last heard from everyone (yes, that makes sense). Whether it's random battling, or something other than OU, isn't it the community that matters the most? It's not really aimed at Pokedra, but literally before you all decided to leave, you all were fine. To be honest I'm kind of talking to a blank wall here, but whatever, I want to get it out. I've been here for around a year. Luckily I came at a time when a lot of you were still left here and yeah, people said dumb things, people's attitudes did turn people away but somehow I didn't say "yeah no this isn't for me". I stayed, something I don't usually do with new things I try. And all the people who were supposedly turned away because of the attitudes? Yeah actually they never came... so maybe CBC was better off with this "different" community than having people who stay five days and run away. idk, but I know that everything is too much effort for everyone, really. It's too much effort to stay, too much effort to care, too much effort to do anything. I personally don't really rate because I know PlatDude will cover most of what I'd say, and the only places I'd really rate in otherwise would be in-game but in the last few months posts have had like, 5 replies per thread for others. I should rate, but I don't, yeah, at least I still care about the other things, though. Yeah, rating is boring as everyone's all said so it's not really that... it's more of a lack of caring. It's too much of an effort to care, or bother.

Really out of anyone I feel the worst for Wolf. He's left here trying to revive a community where everyone basically backed away or left and gave up. What about battling? Are any of you still going to do it? What about the fun any of you had - even back in your S&M days? Do they not matter? Because just backing away and leaving is kind of leaving that impression that none of it really mattered to you guys. Everyone had all these ideas, yet nobody really did anything. I know people lately who said they care or would try to do stuff and just haven't even bothered, or just let it slip your mind or something. Maybe by all of you leaving just means that S&M/CBC was only a community that intimidated people and that it was nothing more, that it was never a battling community, just a clique using it as a means to pass time? Because that's the kind of impression I'm getting now.

Most of you are still around, I see you viewing profiles, or I see you on MSN, or I see you in other places. You are there, you're just over it. CBC could make a comeback, oh easily it could. The people are still around. Being busy with your lives? Nope, I see you stalking a Pokemon forum in your time, or complaining about how it sucks, or whatever. There was at least some part of battling all of you liked, whether it be DP, something in BW, or something as complicated as DW Triples. idk. But there was something. You could get other people interested if you hate how the future of battling is going.

Trolling? Yeah, that happened a lot too. And if you guys spent less time trolling instead of battling, or joining tournaments and doing nothing, or leaving for the pettiest of reasons, then maybe we (yes, we, the five or so of us left) all wouldn't be in this boat. And yeah, without all of you, that means the future suffers. Anyone who wants to battle in the future doesn't have the amount of wiser people to guide them or complain about their sets, which'll spark them to actually DO something and say "oh wow they think I'm bad why don't I fix that", rather than just going along blissfully just making changes in RMTs and not really understanding. Like, yes, that isn't a great method, but it's still something, even having those better people around makes you want to improve, it motivates you to want to try. Even if you guys didn't stay for the battling then you could've stayed for the community.

I know most of you don't really care for PC or whatever now, but I'm sure you guys made at least a few friends in your time here. Those should still matter, really. Will the new people who come along actually bother to join the community? Kind of doubt it, most will probably end up leaving out of boredom for nobody really keeping them here or anything.

Like, I think of most of you in my mind and I think, yeah really, no, you didn't have to leave. It just seems like it's all set up to prove something or show how badass you are, with all the blogs and everything. That's what the rest of us see, or think at least. That you're just saying who can make the best leave, who can stay away longest, who can stalk the most, or whatever. That's what it seems like from here and really if that's true... that's kind of sad.

I'm not going to give up trying to get new people here. It's probably futile but whatever, some people have to care, even if the rest don't.

[Wolflare]

I think everyone has the choice to leave though, and I can see why they would want to. I'm personally sticking around because I like PC, and I think an active CBC is very possible. I would move to Smogon, but I'm not a big fan of their community nor do I like battling all that much. All the time that I've spent here has drained most of my interest in competitive Pokémon, but not all of it. And I can't really see myself joining any other forums after PC; I've had my fill. But like I said, if someone wants to leave, they can. They have the option to do whatever they please, and not be forced to stay on a Pokémon forum.

I don't know why, but I don't see CBC as a hopeless case. Most forums have to start somewhere, and I think this is a good chance to turn over a new leaf. I believe we've been doing many things wrong from the beginning, and CBC deserves another try. We're not exactly in a worse position than we were before; people still didn't battle when we had regulars. And there's plenty of new users that will come along and fill previous places (if there's a reason to stay here anyway). After all, the Pokémon battling community is growing as time passes. Smogon is larger than ever (;D).

[Wolflare]

This thread has served its purpose. Discussion on the forum can continue here, as most posts are related to CBC anyway. Since the forum is primarily for discussions now, this thread isn't really needed. I will be posting a BW OU Discussion soon, so that can be used for general battling chat for BW OU. There will also be an announcement soon with all of the CBC changes compiled and explained (and will probably have a better explanation that this post!).